Tag Archives: Islamic State

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday issued a decree appointing new ministers for defense, industry and information, state television reported. He appointed General Ali Abdullah Ayoub as defense minister, Mohammed Mazen Ali Yousef as industry minister and Imad Abullah Sarah as information minister, state television reported, citing the decree. Ayoub, …

U.S. troops have been in Syria fighting ISIS militants near the border with Iraq. More American diplomats and contractors are headed to Syria to help stabilize areas that have suffered years of war. AILSA CHANG, HOST: How is the U.S. helping shape the future of Syria? American troops and their …

Isis has been defeated in Iraq and Syria. The caliphate declared in 2014, which was once the size of Great Britain, is no more. Its de facto capitals, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, were captured after long and bloody sieges in the second half of 2017. But Isis was always …

Eight French jihadists, including a Muslim convert suspected of involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks, have been captured in Syria by Kurdish fighters. Thomas Barnouin, 36, described as a “jihadist commander”, was detained near the Iraqi border earlier this month with two other French converts named as Romain Garnier, 33, and Thomas …

Suicide bombers killed more than 40 people and left scores injured Thursday, setting off multiple explosions at a gathering inside a pro-Iranian cultural center in the Afghan capital. It was the latest attack in a terrorist campaign against the minority ethnic Shiite community that has intensified over the past two …

U.S military or coalition forces will not go after the remaining Islamic State militants fleeing to western Syria, a British military official said Wednesday. Following the success U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic militants in Syria and Iraq – who lost 98 percent of the territory they once held – the fighters …

Russian President Vladimir Putin said a bomb blast in a St Petersburg supermarket on Wednesday was an act of terrorism, and that security forces whose lives were threatened by terrorist suspects should shoot to kill if necessary. Putin was speaking on Thursday at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin for Russian personnel who served in Syria. “You …

A suicide attack on an office of the Afghan Voice news agency and a neighboring cultural center in Kabul killed dozens on Thursday, officials and witnesses said. Police spokesman Basir Mojahid told NBC News that at least 25 people had been killed and 32 others injured. The attack occurred during …

A Belarusian-Israeli convert to Islam was convicted Wednesday of attempting to join the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria. Valentin Vladmir Mazlevski, 40, who was arrested nearly a year ago while trying to travel to Syria via Turkey, was convicted by the Nazareth District Court of contact with a foreign agent, attempting …

The Islamic State’s so-called caliphate ends 2017 in tatters. But after a year in which U.S.-backed forces drove ISIS militants from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the group is far from defeated. Analysts warn that ISIS is retreating into what some call a “virtual caliphate” from where it will attempt …

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeals on Tuesday issued tough rulings in a range of cases related to state security, handing out jail sentences ranging from three to 15 years. The court also issued fines ranging between Dh50,000 and Dh1 million in cases related to promotion of terrorism, espionage …

Syrian army forces backed by Iranian-backed militias pushed deeper into the last rebel-held enclave near a strategic border area with Israel and Lebanon in a new expansion of Tehran’s influence in the war-torn country. The army and the Shi‘ite forces advanced east and south of the Sunni-rebel held bastion of …

The defence minister, Marise Payne, has announced Australia will scale back its operations in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The country’s six super hornets will head home from the Middle East, marking the end of Australia’s airstrike operations. Payne said the decision follows discussions with the Iraqi government …

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday phoned President Trump to thank him for a tip from the CIA that thwarted a terrorist attack being planned in St. Petersburg. The unusual call — countries share intelligence all the time, but presidents rarely publicly thank one another for it — was confirmed …

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric on Friday called on the powerful Shiite militias that helped reconquer the Islamic State’s territory to choose between politics and arms, backing a key demand of the prime minister. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani stopped short, however, of rescinding a religious edict he made in June 2014 urging Iraqi …

US military advisers and their local Syrian partners killed 21 ISIS terrorists and captured 17 more during a battle near a key strategic base Tuesday, two US military officials told CNN. A military official with the US-led coalition fighting ISIS told CNN that a convoy of about 10 vehicles was …

When Russia launched its military operation in Syria in 2015, the then US President Barack Obama predicted Moscow would get “stuck in a quagmire”. His defence secretary, Ashton Carter, warned that Russia’s approach was “doomed to fail”. Two years on, Russia appears to have proved the doomsayers wrong. On a …

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday made a surprise visit to Russia’s Khmeimim air base in Syria, announcing an imminent drawdown of Russian forces in the wake of his declaration of victory in its intervention in the Syria war. In his first visit to the air base since Russian warplanes …

The Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias backed by Russian air power stepped up a military campaign against rebels in eastern Hama province in a push towards the rebel stronghold of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, rebels and witnesses said. They said dozens of aerial strikes believed to be conducted mainly …

The former chief executive of LafargeHolcim, the world’s largest cement maker, and five other top officials are being formally investigated as part of a government inquiry into whether the company helped finance the Islamic State militant group and other armed factions while operating a factory in Syria. The expanding investigation …

Russian fighter jets have flown dangerously close to American warplanes in eastern Syria over the past month — including one near-collision — in what American officials say is a pattern of daily Russian violations of an agreement to separate rival forces converging on the last main pocket of Islamic State …

The U.S. military allowed thousands of Islamic State militant group (ISIS) fighters to flee from their de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, in a secret deal that boosted the U.S. fight against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a Pentagon-backed Kurdish commander, who has since switched his …

The recognition by US President Donald Trump of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has triggered more than just criticism from America’s allies. Here in Bahrain, at the annual Manama Dialogue security conference, there is an almost universal concern that the announcement will be a gift to the region’s twin adversaries – …

Russia’s military said Thursday that its mission to oust the Islamic State group in Syria had been accomplished and that the country was “completely liberated” from the group. “The Russian armed forces’ goal to defeat armed groups of the ISIL terrorist organization in Syria has been accomplished,” Sergei Rudskoi, in …

There are about 2,000 U.S. troops deployed in Syria, the Pentagon said Wednesday — a number that is four times more than any official figure that U.S. officials have previously acknowledged, and yet still lower than at the height of operations in Syria. Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, …

Two men were charged Tuesday in London with terror offenses over an alleged plot to kill British Prime Minister Theresa May, according to British government officials. Both will appear before a court Wednesday in the British capital in connection with what officials say was a conspiracy to launch a suicide-knife …

Press Release: Rome – Italy, 1 December 2017 – The 30th General Assembly of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) was concluded today in Rome, Italy, following three days of panel discussions, presentations and meetings amongst participating delegations of 135 countries of …

More than 400 US Marines are to leave Syria after helping to capture the city of Raqqa from so-called Islamic State. Marine units have been deployed since March to provide artillery support to an alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters battling the jihadist group. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) …

A 24-year-old British man has been killed in Syria, the BBC understands. Oliver Hall, from the Portsmouth area, joined Kurdish armed groups to fight against so-called Islamic State. Another British fighter described him as a “lovely lad” who was “excited to be there”. Kurdish sources say Mr Hall was killed …

Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Sunday an attack on an Egyptian mosque that killed more than 300 worshippers would galvanise an Islamic military coalition that aimed to counter “terrorism and extremism”. Top defence officials from 40 Muslim-majority nation’s met in Riyadh on Sunday. They are …

The Trump administration is preparing to stop supplying weapons to ethnic Kurdish fighters in Syria, the White House acknowledged Friday, a move reflecting renewed focus on furthering a political settlement to the civil war there and countering Iranian influence now that the Islamic State caliphate is largely vanquished. Word of …

The Pentagon is likely to announce in the coming days that there are about 2,000 US troops in Syria, rather than the 500 the military has said are in the war-torn country. ‘Facing disaster’: children starve in siege of Syria’s former breadbasket Read more Two US officials detailed the new figure …

Militants bombed a Sufi mosque and fired on worshippers in the volatile Sinai Peninsula during Friday prayers, Egyptian officials said, killing at least 85 people in what appeared to be the latest attack by the area’s ISIS affiliate. The extremists attacked the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, 25 miles …

The Latest on Syria talks (all times local): 6:25 p.m. Turkey’s president says trilateral talks with the leaders of Russia and Iran have critical importance for bringing peace to Syria. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking after Wednesday’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the Russian Black Sea resort of …

A Saudi army soldier convicted of treason has been sentenced to 23 years in jail. Investigations revealed that the man, who has not been named, embraced the radical ideology of Al Qaida, glorified Osama Bin Laden and supported Daesh. The convict also attended conferences by the Islamic Nation party in …

At least 20 people were killed and 40 wounded when a suicide bomber set off a truck bomb near a crowded marketplace in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, police and medical sources told Reuters on Tuesday. An interior ministry spokesman confirmed that a “violent explosion” took place near …

While the Trump administration celebrates a new deal meant to freeze the battlefield in southern Syria, the Assad regime and Iran are preparing for the next phase of the long-running war, in which they will attempt to conquer the rest of the country. Whether Iran succeeds depends largely on whether the United …

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan used an address to party officials Friday in Ankara as an opportunity to launch a blistering attack on the U.S. policy in Syria. Erdogan openly asked why the U.S. is involving itself in a country 12,000 kilometers away. He then accused Washington of breaking commitments …

Government forces wrested back the final piece of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate in Iraq, the country’s military said Friday, reclaiming the small town of Rawah near the border with Syria. The Islamic State extremist group, which at its peak in 2014 held about a third of Iraq, including large …

Yemeni forces, trained and armed by the UAE, have booted Al Qaida militants out of a town in the southern province of Shabwa, local military officers said. A large convoy of military vehicles carrying at least two hundreds soldiers, locally known Shabwani Elite Forces, stormed the town of Houta, forcing …

Russia’s Ministry of Defence has posted what it called “irrefutable proof” of the US aiding so-called Islamic State – but one of the images was actually taken from a video game. The ministry claimed the image showed an IS convoy leaving a Syrian town last week aided by US forces. …

The United States and Russia are nearing an agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country’s civil war once the Islamic State group is defeated, officials said Thursday. If clinched, the deal was expected to be announced by President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin …

Syrian pro-government forces have entered the eastern border town of Albu Kamal, so-called Islamic State’s (IS) last urban stronghold in the country. The state-run al-Ikhbariya channel said troops and militiamen had “fully liberated” the town on Wednesday night. But the official Sana news agency and state TV said they had …